From: "Matthew K. Williams" <matt@...>
Date: 2011-06-18T03:55:40+09:00
Subject: Re: get execution name of program

> On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 03:31:20AM +0900, Michael Edgar wrote:
>> On Jun 17, 2011, at 2:16 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 03:03:50AM +0900, Michael Edgar wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> In bash, `alias` is a builtin; these aliases are expanded by the shell
>>>> before the program begins execution. I'm afraid what you wish for is
>>>> not feasible.
>>>
>>> I was afraid of that.  Thanks.
>>
>> If you're desperate, you may find a way to interrogate bash as to its
>> current settings/aliases. You could then look at ARGV and find all
>> matching aliases. You'd always have ambiguity between an alias vs.
>> the expanded form, but you might be able to show an alias was not
>> used.
>
> Yeah . . . but that's much more effort than is warranted by my use case.
> I'm just looking for a way to have my program use what one uses to call
> the program in the usage banner for a --help option.  Frankly, the user
> can figure out the alias for him/her self at this point.
>
> Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.

If you're wanting it for a --help usage, then why not use the old hardlink 
trick?  Create hardlinks for the various "aliases" you'd invoke this as, 
then $0 will be set appropriately.

Matt